Fieldwork Locations 01 - Photoethnography

AnthropologyPhotoEthnographyFieldwork Locations 01 | February 08

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Fieldwork Locations 01:

Asakusa, Tokyo

Asakusa District

Tokyo’s urban landscape is de-fined by the complexity of details.

One of my first memories of walking my fieldwork site was of the long, tall buildings, the cables, the long streets.

My hosts at the University felt it strage I would stay in such area,

with reputation for being poorer, busy at night, close to Ueno park wehre many homelss lived, not very glamour-ous and with many shops dedicated to funerary matters. In 1995 I first stayed in the women-only capsule ho-tel amongst many homeless couples and business people.

Asakusa District

In Tokyo, my main fieldwork residence is in the Asakusa distrit.

This was the first neighbourhood I stayed and I have lived here dur-

ing fieldwork in Tokyo since (1995, 97, 2001, 02, 04,08). Whilst in Southern Japan I lived permanently with a family, in Tokyo I chose to live in cheap hos-tels (next), independently from a family as I needed the space to come and go during my research on St Valent-ien’s Day gift exchange. This is a view of my street on a late february day, feke pink flowers anticipating March’s early spring blossoming.

Communications are crucial when do-ing Fieldwork. This {left} is one of the

telephones I use. It is located on street down from my residence, it is green, like many of the old Japanese telephones of the 80s and 90s, a bit battered, card and coin opperated, with a SOS button and its own wooden box to keep it safe and lock in place. I remember once in 1997, in Shinjuku, mobile phones were given for free, as promotional items, you could connect your laptop to a telephone box terminal, and although everybody had a phone, all telephone boxes were always taken. In my last trip my G3 was not active in my mobile and for two days I relied on these phones to get me through.

This phone has always served me well (and has failed me many times). It is

opposite the Fresh Foods builidng (picture below). Having grown up near Barcelona in Catalonia I have a passion for architec-tural oddities. This one, just opposite my telephone has fascinated me its colours, reminiscent of Japanese clothes. It is also opposite and near a fast-food rice and noodle shop where I eat and where many homeless rough-sleep on the street floors.

The Tayto Ryokan is an old wooden ryokan (nn), which was built after the World War 2, is stand-

ing alone among high-rise buildings in Asakusa, downtown Tokyo. The wooden house can not be re-build (fire restriction and earthquake laws) and it has its own charm, it is cheap to rent, with shared or single rooms, a miniscule shared sink and toilet, and a decrepit shower inside an non-functionable bath. I go to the local public bath house instead. I like it because it is not pretentions and although it advertises a ‘traditional’ stay, it is fairly a residence like you would find in many parts of Japan of build-ings of this period. The official pictures are glam http://www.libertyhouse.gr.jp/facilities.htm.

I always stop here, it allows for a privacy that I can’t get elsewhere and it is in a very friendly

and busy neighbourhood with a 7/11 corner shop.

NEIGHBOURS

Auspicious Racoons for Business

A map of the neighbourhood printed on luggage lockers across the street (taken with a mobile camera, thus low res). The next pages show a mundane, daily walk in my route to the temple where I do some of my research on gift exchange.

SALT - at the corner of my neighbours business (a love motel/motel of all sorts to protect against inauspiciousness that may enter the house. SALT is used for the prevention of inauspiciousness from entering the building and it also signals the stablishment as located in a social and symbolic liminal place - Next building in my route: my nearby Inter-net Cafe (11th floor at the bottom of which is the neighbourhood map above.

Shops & Market

Shops & Market

Gift Shop These are commodities that have been transformed into gifts by virtue of wrapping. Cakes and sweets make auspicious gift giving, and each sweet is individually wrapped. A full box may contain approx 7 layers of wrapping.

These are commodities that have been transformed into gifts by virtue of wrapping. Cakes and sweets make auspicious gift giving, and each sweet is individually wrapped. A full box may contain approx 7 layers of wrapping.

Entrance to Kaminarimon temple, averting a cold with ‘wrapping’one’s mouth

Entrance to Kaminarimon temple, averting a cold with ‘wrapping’one’s mouth

Waiting for Tourists - for a Rickshaw ride

Shopping for Omiyague, Souvenirs to take back home as a memory of the trip

Shopping for Omiyague, Souvenirs to take back home as a memory of the trip

A tourist wanted to pose with a group of Japanese school girls. Another souvenir and exoticisation of the experience

of travelling and meeting other’s. The girls are also on a school trip buying souvenirs for their friends and families back home.

Buying ‘wrapped gifts’ as souvenirs, savoury crackers

A Chinese Tourist visiting the area poses with two manequins in Japa-nese Kimono (for tourists) souvenirs.

All the local shops that sell gifts (wrapped commodities) divide these into two categories: Omiyague

(souvenir for Japanese tourists that these take home for their friends and family, of-ten cakes), Souvenirs for tourists (Kimono clothes, Japanese fans and other repre-sentations of ‘traditional Japanese culture’).

Within the temple there are temple shops that sell protection amulets and incens. There are also many

spots where individuals can offer presta-tions to deities, in the form of prayers, in-cens, coins and rice.These can be thrown or left in boxes near the temple, the incens in incens areas. Kaminarimon is defined by its constant giving and receiving of goods, services, prestations to people and deities.

Next is Ampan, a Japanese cartoon hero, a souvenir from Kaminarimon.

Kaminarimon attracts many people, locals and foreigners alike. The pic-tures in this section illustrate the liminal

character of Kaminarimon, always a place of transition for its visitors and for the local people. A very urban side of Tokyo. Kami-narimon is another world at night. It is quiet, enveloped by an orange, nearly surreal light. Homeless people walk in and out of Kamina-rimon but most stay around its boundaries. The streets around it are quiet, all the shops are closed with aluminum gates, its corri-dor entrance appears strangely elongated.

In the morning, as I go to visit inform-ants, the shops open gradually, enfold-ing thousands of wrapped gifts, the air

is crisp, the pink plastic flowers that imi-tate cherry blossom acquire new colour. People step in gradually, then as the day unfolds it becomes a see of people, the red gates and lamp greet them all alike.

Most visitors in Kaminarimon stop at the incense pool where they burn their incense whilst they ask for a wish to the deities. People take the incens smoke with their hands and apply it to their faces, hands, hair

with the aim to protect and cover onself with the auspicious qualities of it.

Other people consult their fortune. The metail hexagons are shaken, a stick with a number is pulled out, and that number indicate your luck. Then all is left is to open the

tray with the same number as the stick and read your fortune

Most visitors in Kaminarimon stop at the incense pool where they burn their incense whilst they ask for a wish to the deities. People take the incens smoke with their hands and apply it to their faces, hands, hair

with the aim to protect and cover onself with the auspicious qualities of it.

Other people consult their fortune. The metail hexagons are shaken, a stick with a number is pulled out, and that number indicate your luck. Then all is left is to open the

tray with the same number as the stick and read your fortune

After leaving Kaminarimon, one can take a walk around the many little shops, or have a picknic under a

tree, go to the toilet, and for some men to meet some local prostitutes, or to smoke. Two more temples are nearby, and so are some wealthy houses with modern stone gardens, and modest houses too. There are few more shops, mostly on wrapping or wrapped articles, Japanese clotes, ki-monos, wrapped toys, and several restau-rants. There is also a children’s park, with a blue elephant and yellow fantasy animals.

As you reach the end of the street to-wards the Underground, the market place surrounds you, with busy cus-

tomers buying their food and lotery. And then the crossing of 463 greets the inter-section towards Ueno and other parts of To-kyo, a giant golden raddish glistens under the sun on top of a building across the sign.

Dr Angels Trias i Valls - Fieldwork Locations 01 Under a Creative Commons Licence (for all content)